Unknown Prince Charming
by pinkperrypolkadots
Summary: Sometimes a Prince Charming is right there in front of you, even if it isn't whom you expect it to be.
1. Chapter 1

_And so Prince Charming and Cinderella lived to be happy, for ever after_.

"Bullshit", a small, petite girl yelled as she slammed the book down on the table. The brunette in question looked at the book with an accusing glare, wishing to set it on fire. Truth of the matter was the brunette had gone through a tough time. Her supposedly knight-in-shining-armor had been spotted with the resident wench, doing more than just the lip-lock in the hallway. "Stupid fairytales. Stupid life. Stupid Ronald and stupid Lavender", the brunette kicked the table, causing that already short school girl skirt of hers to ride up farther up her legs. Frustrated with her life, she got up from the red couch and picked the book up from the coffee table. She made two short strides to the fire place and threw the book into it, hoping that it would symbolize her love and hate for Ronald Bilius Weasley and Lavender Ava Brown.

What was wrong with her? Hadn't she done all of the signs? She made herself perfect for him, often putting on just a bit of makeup and straightened her hair almost every day. So, why hadn't he noticed her?

"Whoa, Hermione Granger burning books? Who would have seen the day?", the brunette heard a deep voice towards the stairs of the burgundy and gold Gryffindor common room. Startled, she turned her upper body towards the voice to find her fellow school mate, Dean Thomas, at the top of the stairs, great brown eyes staring down at her own chocolate brown ones. The brunette blushed and tried to hide herself in her naturally wavy hair. She was thoroughly embarrassed. She, Hermione Granger, had done what no one would have thought she didn't have the decency too, and she liked it. It empowered her, gave her something to rebel against.

Hermione quickly composed herself as she saw Dean step down the boys' dormitory stairs one by one; the Italian loafers that clacked against the stone bricks of Hogwarts caught her attention. 'Muggle designer', she thought to herself--not that she knew how, or who. She also noticed how his uniform was ticked and tucked to perfection and that chocolate colored skin that covered him looked amazing in the candlelight. She unconsciously moved her trim arms to her chest, crossing them and pouting her pink lips. "Yeah, well", she began in her small timid voice of an English accent. "It was stupid."

Dean, however, only raised an eyebrow at Hermione as he made his way to sit at the red couch that she had occupied not moments before. He took in her frame as he faced her, taking in that perfect, slender figure of hers and that milky skin. He only gave a smirk once he heard her last words. "Never thought I'd hear Hermione Granger call a book stupid either", he teased her as he put his feet up on the coffee table, causing his trousers to ride up to show his football influenced socks, and his hands folded across his flat stomach. "What's wrong with the book, anyway?" he asked her curiously, tiling his head to the side with a smile. Seeing Hermione Granger like this amused Dean greatly; it made her seem human instead of that robotic bookworm that spouted trivia on demand.

Hermione only huffed and moved to sit down beside him, her arms still over her chest and her face still pouting, making her features more distinct. "The ending was wrong. No one lives happily ever after, and there's no such thing as a Prince Charming", she told Dean as her brown, chocolate eyes watched the flames dance around the book, enveloping in it in its bodice and guiding it to its end, until its merely putty and underneath the passion of the kindled fire. She then turned her head toward Dean to find him only looking at her with a toothy grin on his face. It was then she realized that Dean's smile wasn't like any others. It was intimidating and inviting. She was caught in it. Dean was exactly like a Dorian Gray—intoxicating and mesmerizing. Though, her gaze was broken once she realized he had gotten up and put his schoolbag over his shoulder.

"There is such a thing", he told her in that deep, baritone voice of his as he put his hands into the pockets of his trousers. "Sometimes, that Prince or Princess is right in front of us and we don't know it. Look at Seamus and Parvati", he told her as the sickening couple walked by the both of them. Dean pointed to the both of them as they vicariously shared a heated kiss in the middle of the common room. "They both realized what they had in front of them. See? Fairytales do come true", he told Hermione with that same toothy grin on his face. "Now, excuse me. I have Runes to get to", he told her with a nod and left her, walking with a slight spring in his step. Dean was a kid at heart and fairytales had amused him; he wondered why she didn't like them. Hermione Granger, in his eyes, had what she wanted in her life, so why would she hate what she grew up in? Unless this frustration that she had was aimed at Ron and Lavender, which only made Dean smirk with glee and rush to Runes.

"Yeah, I'll believe it when I truly see it", Hermione said in his wake as she started up for her school bag, slinging it over her shoulder as she searched for her schoolbooks. She would be late for Artihmancy if she stayed any longer. That was something she can count on. School and books with hard core facts would always be there for her, always provide the information that she wanted. Fairytales did none of that for her. Fairytales, to her, didn't provide the truth. Angrily, she headed up the small steps and out of the Gryffindor dormitories. "Fairytales are a bunch of poppycock."


	2. Chapter 2

_I love you. And I love you. Together we'd be always..._

"Ew, gross", Hermione could be heard saying as she walked out of the Gryffindor common room with her school bag. It was enough that she had to avoid Ron and Lavender, but now Harry and Ginny had gotten on the bandwagon of the relationship train and even they were more sickening than the other two Gryffindor couples. It was always, "I love you, I love you too" with the lot of them, and it got Hermione riled up. "Love only exists in fairytales and fairytales aren't real."

Her next class didn't start for another hour and a half, making her life even more hellish than it was supposed to be. She held onto that satchel tight to her body, her black Gryffindor embroidered sweater rumpling as she did so. With a scowl on her face, she started her way towards the library and hoped that she didn't run into the lovey dovey couples that were from the other houses. She had enough to deal with in the Gryffindor common room. She didn't need any more from the other houses.

However, Hermione didn't see where she was going. Her vision was clouded with her bangs—she didn't have time to do her hair since she wanted out as fast as she could—and she had crashed into something hard, but warm. Her shoulder bag flew out from her grasp and the brunette fell down to the floor, her ass only breaking her fall. She groaned as she put her legs together, in case anyone got a show, and moved her bangs out of her eyes only to see her books terrorized by the group of Slytherins she so loathed. "Nice going, Mudblood", she heard as they all left her with the mess that they had caused.

Hermione let out a huge groan, scrunching up her face as she did so, and mocked the Slytherins who had taunted her before going down to pick up her books and various papers. She couldn't help but shake her head at the mess before her. "The dragon came and left. Only a Prince can come and save me now", she told herself quietly before moving one hand to pick up a piece of paper, only to find another person's hand on it too. Feeling confused, Hermione looked up to see Dean helping her.

"Thank you", the brunette told her helper as she took her paper from him, only to receive a smile in return. "No problem", Dean spoke out in his baritone voice, grinning from ear to ear as he did so. There was something in that smile that Hermione had found irresistible and eye catching. She had often compared Dean to a Dorian Gray, beautiful and mesmerizing with a sense of uneasiness and vanity about him. So, none of them spoke again until Hermione's books and papers were in their rightful place in her backpack.

The two began to stand around awkwardly, having nothing to say to each other now that the task was finished. Though, Dean did shake his most gorgeous dark head and gave the heroine of the story another bright smile. "How about I walk you to the library?", he offered her, extending out an arm to point to the direction of the library. "You never know when a damsel in distress might need another hero."

With that said Hermione gave one small scoff and made a hand motion to the library to Dean. "Lead the way", she told him as she playfully pushed the boy ahead of her. "And by the way, no fairy tale talk", she told him with a sly smile. "And why not?", the boy asked of his walking partner, keeping up the 

same pace that she had so they could talk. "Fairy tales are often good pick me ups throughout the day", he told her with a toothy grin, giving a laugh in the process.

Hermione rolled her eyes at his statement, crossing her arms to her chest as she walked. "Fairy tales aren't real, Dean. We had this conversation before", she told her company as she turned to look at him, admiring his strong features as she did so. Her smirk grew into a smile as she saw Dean smile his pearly whites back down at her, inching closer to him unconsciously.

"True", he told her with a slight defaltering of his own smile. "But once you think about it, it's all around us. For example", Dean began as they walked into the library and lowered his voice just a bit. "Harry and Ginny are our own prince charming and damsel in distress. Think about it, Hermione", he told her as he shrugged and Hermione looked up at him in awe. She knew that Ginny and Harry was a sore subject to him once they got together, but to hear him speak about them with great respect. Well, let's just say that it impressed Hermione to great extent.

"True", Hermione spoke to Dean, using his own word against him. "However, how long do you think it would last?", she asked him as she found them an empty table, pointing to it to acknowledge it to him. They both walked briskly to the table, putting down their backpacks and sitting across the table, respectively. "Oh, I don't know", Dean spoke as he began taking out some various books. Hermione noticed that he studied Runes and that impressed her. He was smart and philosophical. "Maybe forever? Their kind of love never runs out", he told her as he opened his Runes textbook and started taking notes out of them.

"And what do you suppose what kind of love that it is?", Hermione asked of Dean as she opened her own Arithmancy book and taking out some paper to write notes. She noticed that Dean smiled wider at her words and looked up at her with his chocolate brown eyes—her own color as well. "The most special kind that a man and a woman can have for each other. The same one that sleeping beauty had for her prince, Cinderella had for hers, and the same one Jasmine had for Aladdin", he told her simply and then looked down to his notes once again.

And with that said, Hermione gave him a slight smile and continued writing her notes. "Give me facts, Dean. Give me facts", she told him and they both started to giggle, putting that fairy tale debate behind them, for now.


End file.
